"I feel like there is a finite amount of Scandal to be told," Rhimes told NPR. "So I know what the end of Scandal will be, and I feel really good about that. And I can see where the end point is. And I don't think I'm going to change that. ... I know how long I think it will be. But we'll see."

Then again, Rhimes said she once felt the same way about Grey's Anatomy, which is currently limping through its 10th season, but later changed her mind. "I knew the end of Grey's Anatomy, and then we kept going, so that I finally just had to write that and move past it," Rhimes said. "Who knows, at this point, how long that show's going to go? It's going to go as long as I feel interested in what happens to those characters."

However, she added, Scandal, currently in its third season, is a "different kind of show." "It is very political," Rhimes said. "The political landscape on the outside, in the real world, will change — possibly before Scandal is over."